Attention-Emotion Interactions in Psychopathy

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议项目的总体目标是研究精神病发展和维持的风险因素，精神病是一种人格障碍，其特征是慢性反社会行为（Douglas, Vincent, & Edens, 2006），掠夺性人际特征（Hare, 2003）和不良治疗结果（Harris & Rice, 2006）。目前的应用程序将测试一个新的精神病的病因模型，重新概念化的注意力和情绪缺陷相关的障碍在一个综合框架。具体而言，该项目将解决(1)情绪和注意力的相互作用，作为使用心理生理学测量（即事件相关电位，肌电图）在精神病中观察到的加工缺陷的促成因素，以及(2)单胺能基因作为与该疾病相关的缺乏情绪反应性的风险因素的潜在调节作用。拟议的研究旨在通过在涉及刑事司法系统的高风险个体样本中检查精神病的生物学和心理风险因素，来推进目前对该疾病的病因学概念化。事件相关电位、惊吓反射和基因数据将从从缓刑和假释中招募的个体中收集，这些个体使用精神病检查表：筛选版（Hart, Cox, Hare, 1999）将其分类为高或低精神病特征。当参与者观看与国际情感图片系统（Lang et al., 2005）的视觉复杂性相匹配的不愉快和中性图片时，这些措施将用于索引注意力和情感系统的独特和互动效果（Lang et al., 2005）。基于现有的文献，我们假设这些结果将支持一种精神病的病因模型，在这种模型中，基因赋予了在这种疾病中观察到的缺乏情绪的风险，这种风险与注意力能力的降低相结合，导致精神病的特征。该项目的长期目标是提供有关精神病风险因素的数据，这些数据可用于改善对该疾病的治疗干预。目前还没有针对这种疾病的有效干预措施（Harris & Rice, 2006），这可能部分是由于精神病的病因仍然不确定。缺乏有效的治疗干预措施给刑事司法系统带来了沉重的负担，因为大约20 - 30%的被监禁者是精神病患者（Louth等人，1998年），尽管在一般人群中的患病率为1%。因此，在一定程度上，这项研究可以为未来的治疗干预提供信息，它有可能减轻这种社会上相当重要的精神病理学类型所带来的经济和情感负担

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad goal of the proposed project is to examine risk factors for the development and maintenance of psychopathy, a personality disorder characterized by chronic antisocial behavior (Douglas, Vincent, & Edens, 2006), predatory interpersonal traits (Hare, 2003), and poor treatment outcomes (Harris & Rice, 2006). The present application will test a new etiological model of psychopathy that re-conceptualizes the attentional and emotional deficits associated with the disorder in an integrative framework. Specifically, the project will address (1) the interactive effects of emotion and attention as contributing factors to the processing deficits observed in psychopathy using psychophysiological measures (i.e., event-related potentials, electromyography), and (2) the potential moderating effects of monoaminergic genes as risk factors for the deficient emotional reactivity associated with the disorder. The proposed study seeks to advance current etiological conceptualizations of the disorder by examining biological and psychological risk factors for psychopathy in a sample of high-risk individuals involved in the criminal justice system. Event-related potentials, startle reflex, and genetic data will be collected from individuals recruited from probation and parole who have been classified as high or low on psychopathic traits using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (Hart, Cox, Hare, 1999). These measures will be used to index the unique and interactive effects of attentional and emotional systems while participants view unpleasant and neutral pictures matched on visual complexity selected from the International Affective Picture System (Lang et al., 2005). Based on extant literature, it is hypothesized that the results will support an etiological model of psychopathy in which genes confer risk for the deficient emotionality observed in the disorder, which, in conjunction with reduced attentional capacity, result in psychopathic traits. The long-term objective of the project is to provide data on risk factors for psychopathy that can be used to improve treatment interventions for the disorder. No validated interventions presently exist for this disorder (Harris & Rice, 2006), which is likely due in part to the fact that the etiology of psychopathy remains uncertain. PUBLIC HEATLH RELEVANCE The lack of effective treatment interventions has placed a substantial burden on the criminal justice system in that approximately 20 - 30% of incarcerated individuals are psychopathic (Louth et al., 1998), despite a 1% prevalence rate in the general population. Thus, the extent to which the study can inform future treatment interventions it has the potential to reduce the financial and emotional burden posed by this socially quite important type of psychopathology